The photos are delightful! It's amazing how the bees are at the ends of the filaments. Great shots!

The purple shamrock that you gave us is still doing well but we have it in the shed. We didn't know that it would do well in the ground. It is one of DH's favs. Thanks for passing it on.

My purple shamrock comes back from roots up here :-) Of course the foliage on mine is gone for winter and my fall blooms were in October through November.

I loved seeing all of your beautiful plants. Is the fairy duster a part of the bottlebrush family?

I would love to be able to grow those desert mallows and red fairy dusters. I have the pink ones but the red ones are more cold sensitive. I have problems with the pinks freezing to the ground here., but they come back. The deer LOVE LOVE LOVE those mallows. For awhile they did not know them to eat them and I had a great display, but these days are over . The secret is out amongst the heard.

PKponder, The fairy duster is a Caliandra heamatocephela. It is native to mexico and the Baha , I think it is in the mimosidae family and native to the Americas. Bottle brushes are from Australia. They are in the Calistemon genus in the family Myrtaceae . The entire genus is in Australia. So they ar distinct from each other. Ms google makes me look smarter than I am.

Thanks Mara! I should have Googled :-)

Thanks all for looking and thanks Mara for providing more info on the Baja fairy duster. It's a constant bloomer. So sorry you can't grow it. Being from Baja I'm surprised it survived last winter without even being covered. I didn't realize it was so tender, but won't take the chance again if we have an extradinary freeze the coming year. It's too pretty to lose..

I think it's interesting that the blooms are so similar to those in the bottlebrush family. It must be a good design as nature repeats the form in several plant families.

I used to see the red fairy duster in stores but I haven't lately. They might freeze down to the roots and jump right back up on those bad years in San Antonio. You guys do get freezes a fewer temps lighter and a few days shorter. I really do notice the difference of what grows in SA and here. I am creating slowly NEXT year, my south of the house bed that will be effected by thermal mass of a large cement foundation thick cement pillars and a uninterrupted southern exposure to winter sun. That should buy a Zone, or so I am hopping, in my state of acute zonal-denial. Sometimes I think of the plants that I kill as my offerings to all the garden demigods that look over me and my verdant babies. They need something to eat to stay happy. I have not gone the extra step to human sacrifice. Instead of "eye for an eye", it is still "a plant for a plant" on a cold winter night.

Another thing of interest might be that the older they get the more cold hardy and resilience the Pink fairy duster is. It froze down last winter and it is bigger than ever right now. I do not mulch it or water it and it is just planted in unadulterated limestone marl that was pick axed apart and maybe some DG sand added around the roots. It was slow to establish treated like that, but it is alive and well many tears later..

Gorgeous photos as usual!